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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Check it out while you still can

A video of a recent attack on a MAX train has already been taken down from YouTube. There's still a clip on KGW, but given the racial overtones of the incident, it may not last long there, either.

We've ridden trains in Newark and the South Bronx, and they were no scarier than MAX on the east side in the afternoon. Actually, probably less scary, because on the East Coast there are at least some unwritten rules among thugs, and fairly competent police. That's not the case here in Portlandia.

I moved to the Midwest a few years ago and have kept up on Portland issues through relatives and your blog.

I recently met a young man who had lived in Portland until March 2011 and he was telling me how much he missed it. He kept referencing how great MAX was and how he didn't need a car in Portland.

I told him that "incidents" on MAX were rising quite a bit and that I, who used to take my young niece and nephews on rides to places like the zoo for fun, would not do so anymore based on the reports I was reading and seeing.

I'll have to point him to this video. I really would not feel safe on the MAX anymore, regardless of what Mary wants to tell me. (And I like Mary.)

Last night one of the local newscasts reported that Tri-Met doesn't have a video of the incident because it "taped over" the original video before learning that there had been an incident. Tape? I assume the reporter misspoke and that Tri-Met uses digital technology. But if Tri-Met uses digital technology, why would there ever be any need to erase any video since storage capacity is virtually limitless?

And now this morning, there's a conflicting report that Tri-Met did in fact know about the incident at the time it occurred.

In any case, the logic behind saving videos is obvious -- mainly, that you're not going to learn about every incident immediately after it happens. You're also not going to know if any particular video might be of help weeks or months after the fact in something like a missing persons case, or tracking the movements of a suspected criminal.

KGW constantly publicizes how it is the "news partner" of The Oregonian and in virtually all of its newscasts features one or more stories it is "partnering" with, along with the Oreognian nameplate prominently featured. Curiously, this story is not to be found in The Oregonian, including at OregonLive, where it can post stories continually as news breaks. What's with this fanatical effort to cover up hate crimes when they are black on white??

Crime happens on all public transit systems. It's not unique to Portland. What IS unique to Portland, however, is a feckless "honor system" of fare collection and a half-a**ed approach to transit security.

Before I even looked at the video, I knew it would be a group of black girls beating up on a white girl. Does that sound racist? Having grown up in NYC, I can simply attest to the fact that, even decades ago, this particular dynamic played itself out regularly. I was a victim of it, and so were many of my friends. It was just one inner-city reality/fact of life. Apparently, it still is. My prayers go out to the rather impressive young girl who was attacked, and also to the perpetrators, in the hope that something positive will come into their lives to help them change course. Where were the adults who were on the MAX in all this? A shame that no one did anything.

I love how TriMet always has the same response to any kind of unprovoked violence: "This is extremely rare; TriMet is very safe" We hear this every few weeks, it seems. Perhaps repitition will make it so?

If TriMet is so safe and wonderful, why does the Board and the General Manager refuse to ride the system?

My repeated requests for them to join me on a random ride of the TriMet system have been turned down...just this week I had two buses pass me up (due to overloaded conditions), buses greater than 10 minutes late resulting in bus bunching, bus drivers that can't maintain a schedule, buses making all sorts of unsafe lane changes (that aren't ever supposed to happen anymore, right?), broken equipment...three broken buses on one outbound trip (fortunately mine wasn't broken, but we did pick up a lot of passengers from those broken buses).

TriMet's Board is a group of idiots that barely know what a bus is. Of course, the only reason they have the job is because they kissed the Governor's ass.